


Zaubererschwester

by PascalDragon



Category: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), Krabat | The Satanic Mill - Otfried Preußler, Mulan (1998), The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 20:57:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5306513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PascalDragon/pseuds/PascalDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elsa, used to begging, finds herself accept an apprenticeship in a mill. It turns out however that the mill is not as harmless as it seemed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zaubererschwester

**Author's Note:**

> This AU idea came to be after I had visited the Krabat museum in Schwarzkollm last year (at 3rd October 2014) with my best friend and another very good friend (my beta to be precise ;) ). Back then I hadn’t yet started writing, so the idea sunk into obscurity. At least until I’ve read that the prompt for this fall’s Review Extravaganza was about “schooling”. I have to admit though that if I had known three weeks ago that I would write this much I probably would have picked something else (note to self: challenge yourself to smaller stories). Also I’m not completely happy with the story yet, but I’m happy enough to publish it, so here we go.  
> A few warnings:  
> \- while I have proof read this story, it is not betaed (by my above mentioned beta ;) ), so beware of strange phrases  
> \- the source material (mainly the movie Krabat) is in German and I tried to translate the used, often historical terminology as good as possible, but your milage may vary…  
> \- this story contains major character deaths  
> \- some of the princesses used as side characters will feel out of character; this is by intension for the sake of the story  
> For once I can also provide a music suggestion: the German band ASP had done a song cycle about the Krabat myth. You can find it on YouTube as playlist “ASP [Zaubererbruder (Der Krabat Liederzyklus)]” (it’s in German and the ending is different, but it works ^^)

In the year of the Lord 1646 the German lands were dominated by wars that later on should become known as the 30 Years War. But the battles of the believes weren't the only hurdles the populace as a whole had to face: those that weren't carried off by the bloody conflicts often fell victim to a different enemy: the plague.

It was during this time, to be precise the day before Epiphany, that Elsa and her two friends Rapunzel and Jane were traveling as carolers from village to village to beg for enough coins for them to survive. They had sworn to each other to stay together no matter what and up to now it seemed that indeed only death would be able to separate them.

Before nightfall they had reached a lonely hut, normally used during the summer time to store whatever harvest the owning farmers were having. It wasn't much, but the three young women would take anything to have shelter for the night especially with Elsa being the only one that wasn't perturbed by the cold weather that at that day thankfully had been free of storms.

After having shared a meager meal consisting of a few slices of bread the women cuddled together at the wall opposite of the weather face, the cold still creeping in between the gaps in the wood and into their bodies. This was one of the few times in which Elsa had been glad of the strange magic God had bestowed her with. While her two companions were shuddering left and right of her, their hands, knuckles red from the cold, grasping around their bodies to keep in a bit of warmth, Elsa was the tower of strength amidst them, providing them with as much body heat as possible.

Once Elsa had been asleep a dream was coming to her more real and unknown than any dream before it. Normally she dreamed of events of her past, especially that dreadful day that her three times cursed powers had struck her little sister and caused Elsa to nearly loose her. But this time it was different.

She saw a group of three buildings located in a clearing in a forest, one looked like a mill, another like living quarters, the third like a barn. Then she was in a room, faintly illuminated by candles, columns around her covered in strange carvings were supporting the ceiling. At the top of each column were poles, their ends carved as detailed raven heads. Only now she noticed that they weren't merely poles, but perches as on eleven of the twelves rods was a raven each. One perch however was free, empty, unoccupied and somehow it was calling out for her.

“ _Elsa.”_ It was a soothing, strengthening voice of a woman that called out to her. _“Elsa, come to Schwarzkollm, come to the black mill at Koselbruch. It will not be to your disadvantage. You are destined for greatness. And I can help you... with your_ gift _.”_

Once the last word had been spoken the dream ended abruptly, throwing Elsa back into reality, feeling the shivering bodies of her friends beside her. Though had it really been a dream? Or was it something more? It had felt so real.

She looked to her left and to her right. Should she really give up on the promise of the three of them staying together? But then again the voice had said that whoever she was could help Elsa with her... curse. She held up one hand in front of her as good as she could with Rapunzel leaning onto her shoulder and created a single, large snowflake that danced upon her hand. Then however the snowflake began to shake violently and after mere moments it burst into tiny little particles of ice that thankfully weren't enough to interrupt the sleep of her friends.

That little setback was the final straw to follow the dream or vision that Elsa had. Carefully she managed to wiggle herself out of her friends' embrace and to let them rest leaning against each other so that they'd continue to provide each other at least some warmth. She left the two women all food and water they had. If her dream should proof true then she wouldn't need them as desperately as they did.

Carefully she opened the barn's door and sneaked out, stealing one last glance at Rapunzel and Jane.

“It's for the best”, she whispered and closed the door, walking away from the hut into the direction of Schwarzkollm, a small town she had already heard about. She had never been there though and it hadn't been on the route she and her friends had chosen for their begging tour.

* * *

It had not even been dawn when she had left the barn and now in the early afternoon Elsa was near her destination. She could feel it just as she had been able to feel something pulling her towards it once she had stepped outside. Remotely she had noticed the small houses of Schwarzkollm when she had passed the town in a safe distance a little while ago. At the same time she had noticed eleven ravens flying high above her, seemingly guiding her along with that feeling she had.

Soon the forest around her started to clear and she saw the same scenery she had seen in her dream: a clearing amidst the forest and in its center lay three building covered in snow. They were dark gray, nearly black even. A mill race from a mill pond located a bit higher lead to one of the houses, ending atop a water wheel on the small side of the building that pointed towards her.

Filled with new energy upon seeing her vision confirmed like this she stormed forward through the snow, only stopping once to pass the wooden gate that separated the grounds of the mill from its surroundings. What was strange however was that the place appeared completely deserted. Aside from farm animals and the ravens above her no human soul was to be seen. The strangeness only increased as the ravens all dived one after another into an open window of the mill house.

Elsa decided to look into that house at first. Maybe someone was there who fed the ravens? She knocked on the blank wooden door, but even after waiting some time no answer came. Thus she tried to open the door and to her delight it hadn't been locked. The room behind it was dark, only faint light reaching it through barred windows and more through the increasing gap of the door. She noticed a closed door to her right and a staircase next to it leading upwards into the first floor. Directly across the room was another door, both it's frame and wing decorated in strange symbols that she couldn't decipher from were she stood in the door frame. Those symbols weren't the only thing that intrigued her however. There was light, flickering candle light shining through the gap between the floor and the door wing. Curiosity overwhelming her she stepped forward into the faintly lit room, ever closer to the door on the other side. After some steps she had nearly reached the door and she squinted her eyes trying to make out the symbols she saw. Nearly all of them she didn't recognize, except for the pentagram that was resting on its tip. This was a bad sign.

“I have expected you.”

Elsa swirled around immediately, fear grasping her whole body as if her end had been near, her icy curse leashed out and created a circle of protective spikes around her. Slowly she began to consciously process again what her senses told her. In the space behind the open door wing was standing a figure, no a person, a woman that the voice she had just heard must have belonged to. A voice that seemed to be the same as the one from her vision.

“Oh dear, it seems that I have startled you”, the woman snickered and moved from the shadows behind the door into the light that was shining through the door. Seeing that she was dressed in a black tunic with dark purple linen pants Elsa didn't wonder why she hadn't been able to see her. The woman moved away from the door and through a door frame below the staircase that Elsa hadn't noticed before. In this better lit area was a table with various bowls, cups and bottles. The woman grabbed a bottle with her slender fingers and filled a cup with whatever liquid the bottle contained. Then she held the cup out for Elsa to take.

“Drink. You must be thirsty from your travels.”

Navigating around her ice spikes Elsa moved towards the woman and the cup that was being held out for her. With a hint of hesitation she grabbed the cup and let the liquid – it turned out to be simple water – run down her throat.

“Now, what shall I teach you?” The woman looked at Elsa with her one, blue eye, the other was hidden behind an eye patch. “Milling?” There was a slight pause. “Or the other as well?” For a moment the single eye glanced towards the ice spikes behind Elsa.

“ _The other as well”_ , a voice whispered in Elsa's mind. It sounded like the voice of the woman, but repeated onto itself like an echo.

Not even wasting a further thought on this Elsa answered right away. “The other as well.”

A smile crept onto the oval face of the woman and she reached out with her hand towards Elsa who accepted immediately. And just then she heard the sound of wood groaning, a constant sound of grinding and the feeling of vibrations growing.

“The mill”, the woman, no, Elsa's master now, exclaimed with a smile. “It's milling again.” She walked past Elsa towards the darkened entry room. “Come.”

Elsa placed her cup back on the table and followed the master who went up the staircase that began near the entrance. Arriving at the top of the staircase Elsa looked around. The first floor not only contained the truss of the building, but along its sloped walls she could see various beds. The master directed her towards one with a pile of clothes on it.

The woman gestured towards the bed. “This will be your bed and your clothes.” She looked back at Elsa her blue-gray eye glinting for a moment. “You will fare well if you keep the proprieties. You don't leave the mill without my permission and you do as you're told. At Easter you'll be tested.” The master walked back towards the staircase. “Now sleep. You'll need your strength.”

Once the woman had vanished to the floor below Elsa turned back towards the pile of clothes on her bed. _Her_ bed. She liked the sound of it. It was the first time since the birth of her sister that she had a bed for herself. Before the accident that nearly cost Anna's life – a pang of guilt hit Elsa as always when she thought about her sister and her ice threatened to spiral out of control – the two sisters had slept in the same bed considering how poor their family had been. But afterward Elsa had kept her distance and slept in the stable in piles of hay that couldn't even remotely be considered a bed. And once she had been old enough she had started on her begging tour with Rapunzel and Jane and a bed all but became the ghost of a memory. But now she had one for herself. She let her fingers wander along the wooden frame that was fixed to the floor and not only kept the mattress in, but also doubled as a barrier for whoever slept on it.

Then Elsa let her attention wander towards the pile of clothes nestled on top of the blanket. The first piece she lifted up and held before her turned out to be a blue tunic and the next a pair of brown pants made, both made of linen. Both were much better than the scraps she was wearing herself and that were only held together by a few seams. The last item of clothing she found was a long white tunic that was supposed to be used when sleeping – or when the other items were being cleaned.

Immediately she stripped off the rags she had dared to call clothes and pulled the sleeping tunic over her head. Only now she noticed that there were also shoes standing at the side of the bed and to her delight a brush and a piece of yarn were lying on a piece of wood attached to the head of the bed. How long had it been since she last brushed her hair? Really brushed and not merely running her fingers through her long, blonde hair? She'd definitely fix her hair before she'd go to bed.

* * *

It were foreign sounds that allowed her subconsciousness to rip her from her dreams that were more relaxing that what they'd been like in a long time. It took a moment for her to get a hold of her bearings, but once she opened her eyes she looked into the faces of various young women looking at her in turn. She gasped in surprise, ice nearly escaping her.

“Don't worry”, the woman nearest to her began to speak, “we're the gals of the mill.” She pointed at Elsa. “You must be the newcomer. What's your name?” Her almond shaped eyes were focused on her with honest curiosity.

It took a moment for Elsa to calm herself and to make sure that no ice would dare to risk this meeting – they'd learn about her impairment soon enough anyway. “I- I'm Elsa.”

“I'm Mulan, I'm also the senior journey woman”, the woman said and then pointed to the girls left and right of her. “These are Merida and Snow White.” Mulan then gestured to a group of four more women at the other end of the room. “These are Kida, Pocahontas, Cinderella and Belle.” Then there were two women on the other side of the room. “Tiana and Ariel.” One of the two, the one with bright red hair, waved at her with enthusiasm. “Up there we have Jasmine and Merida.” Mulan had gestured towards two girls standing on a second floor then went through half the building's length.

So many new faces. Elsa didn't really know who'd been who with Mulan only gesturing towards groups of the others.

“I hope you won't mind me asking for your names a few times...”, Elsa said feeling embarrassed. “Your introduction was a bit too quick.”

“Don't ya worry, lass”, one of the women next to Mulan, one with fire red, wild hair said. “Ya'll get ta know us in no time.”

“Now let's all get to bed. We'll have enough work tomorrow and you especially”, Mulan pointed at Elsa, “will need your strength.”

* * *

At the next morning Elsa awoke refreshed and relaxed. The other girls were already awake as well and were changing from their plain sleeping tunics into their day-to-day clothes or were already walking down the staircase and towards the room were hopefully breakfast would be served.

“Woah! Look at that!”, one of the women, a black skinned one, exclaimed while looking at Elsa. “I'd never thought I'd see someone with hair that would rival Merida's!”

Elsa reached up for her hair and felt the unruly bedhead that crowned her head. She snickered.

“Yeah... well... it's a family trait.”

She grabbed the brush and brought her hair more or less in order and braided it before she changed her clothes and joined the others onto their way into the parlor which turned out to be the same room the Master had given her the cup in.

Unlike yesterday she now took the opportunity to look at the room in more depth. There wasn't only one, but two tables, lined with twelve chairs around them all together. On a wall at the side were racks in which the plates were standing as well as cupboards for cups and bowls.

She picked a plate and a cup – apparently they didn't belong to any of the gals specifically – and moved to a chair at the table Mulan was sitting at as well. Elsa had the hope that she'd be able to build a friendship with the senior journey woman. However before Elsa had been able to sit down she had been yanked away from the chair.

Elsa swirled around confused and agitated and noticed that a women with a dark taint and long black hair – longer than Mulan's – had pushed her away.

“If you want to keep your milk maid's face you should go and sit at the kitten's table”, the woman spat and then sat down at the place Elsa originally had picked for herself.

“Way to go, Jasmine!”, another woman sitting on the chair next to the woman that had bullied Elsa exclaimed. Unlike her bully this woman had short black hair.

Not wanting to fight the others Elsa took her cup and plate that had fallen on the floor and moved towards the other table that had been indicated to be the 'kitten's table'. She sat down next to the woman with white, long hair.

Said woman then leaned over to her. “Don't mind them”, she whispered, “they think they are someone better.” She glanced towards the two raven haired women for a moment and then distanced herself from Elsa a bit. “I'm Kida by the way.”

“Elsa”, Elsa provided with a nod, then reached for a slice of bread that had been prepared by the girl with the bright red hair.

“I know. It's easier to remember a single name than to remember eleven”, Kida winked. The red haired woman provided her with a slice of bread as well. “Thanks, Ariel.”

The red haired woman – Ariel, Elsa reminded herself – replied with a bright smile, but without saying a word.

“What's her problem?”, Elsa asked, nodding towards Ariel who had now changed from distributing bread to distributing sausages. However the woman had heard her. She gestured at her larynx with the one hand that was not holding the plate with the sausages and then shook her head.

“She's mute”, Kida provided.

“Oh...” Elsa was surprised. She had never met someone mute up to now. “How do you understand her?”

Kida shrugged. “She gestures around quite much and tries to form symbols with her hands. You'll get a hang of it soon enough.”

The remainder of the breakfast consisted mostly of most of the others joking about the other gals. At the forefront were the two women with the black hair – Jasmine and from the discussions the other had to be Snow White – that had bullied Elsa before. After breakfast they all donned their winter garb – jackets, mittens, caps – and went outside to start the days' work.

“Listen up, we need to get the mill running again”, Mulan said once they were all outside in the yard between the two buildings. “We need to remove the ice from the water wheel and the sluice. We also need to check the mill pond.” She turned to Elsa. “You'll go with Aurora and Merida to the mill race to free the sluice.”

“Why am I stuck with the new one?!”, a woman with blonde hair exclaimed, but she earned a fist into her arm by the woman with the wild red hair instead. “Ow.”

“Shut it, Aurora, will ya. Ya know as well as me that the lass needs ta learn this”, the redhead said.

Aurora rubbed her arm and glared at the woman that had hit her, but otherwise dropped the topic.

Elsa had more and more the feeling that solidarity didn't go far here with the journey women hitting on each other and her like that.

“Kida, Pocahontas, Jasmine, you'll check the pond”, announced Mulan. “The remainder will work on the wheel.”

There was grumbled agreement all around, but soon the gals went to work.

* * *

It had been tedious work to clear the mill race of ice. Elsa would have been glad if she had controlled her curse good enough to simply whisk the ice away, but as it was she had to do it by hand or more precisely with tools that were available in the barn of the mill, one of the three buildings.

Around midday they were able to open the water gate at the pond and soon enough the water wheel started to move.

“Elsa, come here”, Mulan called her over to the outside of the room holding the grinder. “You'll close the flour bags. Like this.”

Mulan grabbed the open end of the bag, closed it and held it with one hand while she grabbed a piece of coarse thread with her other hand. She put one end of the thread – with quite some length to spare – between her fingers holding the bag and swirled the other end tightly below her hand. After three rounds she tightly grabbed both ends and fixed them with a knot.

“You can do this?”

Well, it definitely looked easy. Elsa just hoped that the threads wouldn't slip her too often. She nodded. “Yeah, but why can't I work in there?” She knew it was foolish to ask, she was the new one after all, but she needed to know.

“Ha!”, came a voice from the entry to the grinder room. It was Jasmine. “You're not even close to be strong enough for this.”

“Yeah, or can you pull the cart?”, the other black haired girl – Snow White as Elsa had learned during the morning – asked and pointed at the tongue of the cart. “Show us what you can do, blondie!”

Elsa's face was burning red both from embarrassment regarding her question and rage at the behavior of the other girls. Not wanting to back down she stepped forward and towards the tongue lying in the mud all their steps had created out of the snow and the earth. She lifted the long piece of wood and would have nearly dropped it immediately again, too surprised by its weight. She stemmed herself against the ground, trying to get the cart to move, but in the end she only managed to slip and landed with her knees in the mud. The journey women laughed at her inability to pull the cart while Elsa got to her feet again, barely holding back the ice, her face just as red as before, but more from embarrassment than rage.

“Here, try this!”, came Cinderella's voice from the top of the cart. But before Elsa could fully turn around a bag of grain hit her at her shoulder and threw her to the ground. Again there was the laughter, but this time Elsa didn't have the will to hold back and the ground around her iced over.

“Woah!” It was again Cinderella that exclaimed this. “Gals, gals! Look at that! Our little missus here doesn't seem so ordinary after all.”

The other gals gathered around Elsa and eyed the frozen ground. That was it. Not even thinking about that the master had said that she'd help her with her curse Elsa could only think that the others would for sure toss her out of the mill, out into the world of begging and struggling to survive again. But as she looked into the eyes of the gathered women she didn't see any fear.

“That might prove useful”, Pocahontas quipped.

“Okay, dearies, enough of this. Get back to work”, Mulan shooed and swiftly picked up the bag of grain lying next to Elsa. With her other hand Mulan reached out to help Elsa back to her feet.

“You see now why should stick to the bags?”, Mulan asked once Elsa was standing again who merely nodded in response.

Working on the bags and even hauling the bags to the emptied cart later on the time passed quickly and soon enough Elsa found herself at the dinner table. Out of exhaustion she had collapsed onto the wooden plate and slept, not even remotely noticing how Ariel and Kida defended the bit of food that stood before her against the greedy hands of some of the other girls.

* * *

The days went on with Elsa becoming fitter, healthier and even a bit stronger, though she still wasn't allowed to help the others with the grinder. At least she was now able to stay awake at dinner, but the bickering of the other girls, especially Jasmine and Snow White went on. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, at least not until the first night of the new moon since her arrival at the mill.

Strange sounds woke Elsa from her slumber and confused she looked around. There was no sign of the other gals in their dormitory. Again she heard the sounds. They came from outside!

She stood up and carefully sneaked towards the roof slope on the opposite side of the room. Peeking through one of the holes in the thatching that doubled as windows she could see the other women and the master standing in the yard between the buildings. The girls were standing in two rows, each row facing the other, torches in their hands. The master was standing between the two rows, wearing her tricorn and her black coat with the violet inlets.

“Don't look at him!”, she ordered and the gals turned around to face outwards.

Just then a cart came onto the mill's grounds. Drawn by two marvelous black horses it was loaded with large bags, not unlike the corn bags they all handled throughout the day. The single rider was hiding themselves in a long black coat with a hood, so that their face could not be seen. The gals began to unload the cart and to carry the bags into the grinder room.

Elsa raised an eyebrow. Milling in the middle of the night? A shiver ran down her spine despite being immune to the cold. Something was not right.

Suddenly the hooded figure on the coachman's seat turned around and looked directly at her. Intense, yellow eyes bore directly into Elsa's, directly into her soul. The face she looked at was littered with wrinkles. Then the corners of the figure's mouth wandered up, turning the bloodless lips into a wicked smile. Just barely Elsa managed to turn away from the sight below, to hide herself outside the view provided through the window in the ceiling.

What was that creature? They didn't seem human, they didn't even feel alive. She grasped the small wooden cross that she was wearing on a thread around her neck, hidden from sight below her tunic.

“Please, oh God, lend me strength”, Elsa whispered and adopted a resolution. Maybe it was foolish what she was about to do, but she needed to know. Especially with her intuition telling her that nothing good was going on in the grinder room below.

Carefully she went down the stairs and managed to steal herself into the grinder room through one of the back doors next to the gears of the grinder. The other gals were hard at work emptying the bags with whatever into the funnel and transporting of the freshly filled bags with the flour. They didn't pay attention to Elsa lurking around below the platform.

Elsa still didn't know what they were milling, but it definitely didn't sound like corn that they filled into the grinder. It sounded like hollower, larger pieces, a bit bony maybe.

Just then a piece out of the bag that Belle was filling into the funnel fell down beside it and due to its inertia it tumbled towards the border of the platform where nothing stopped it from falling down to Elsa's level. Elsa looked at it in curiosity. It was white, and... she recoiled in fear and grabbed her cross again. It _was_ bone! They were milling bones! By God! What were they doing! She needed to get out of here, out of the mill and away to her old life!

The ground around her was littered in icy spikes that were pointing away from her, trying to form a protective palisade around her. Just like the palisade around her Elsa however was frozen as well, unable to move herself or to even turn her gaze away from the piece of bone lying in front of her, seemingly mocking her for her naivety to assume that someone who claimed to want to help her with her curse would be a saint.

A hand gripping her arm brought her out of her stupor. She wanted to scream, but she found another hand on top of her mouth.

“Be quiet!”, a female voice whispered. Elsa turned around and after a moment she recognized the face next to her to belong to Mulan. “You are not supposed to be here!”, she hissed in a low voice. “Come.”

Mulan moved towards the backdoor Elsa had previously come through and into the corridor next to the grinder.

“Go back to bed and forget what you had seen here!”

Elsa just looked at her with wide, scared eyes.

“Don't you understand? The master must not see you! You must go! Now!” The woman all but shoved her towards the staircase. Finally Elsa decided to follow her pleading and went back upstairs.

Down below Mulan moved back out towards the cart and the horses in front of it.

“What are you doing?” It was the master who had asked this.

Mulan hesitated for a moment then turned around to face her master. “The horses seemed uneasy. I went to check them.”

“No one goes away without my permission, is that clear?”

“Yes, master.” Mulan looked down, knowing full well what was coming.

“Now turn around”, the master said and reached for a whip hanging at the front of the cart. The master scourged the senior journey woman standing in front of her, leaving a mark on her back. A scream wanted to escape Mulan, but she held it back.

“I thought better of you.” The master rolled up the whip again and placed it back on the carriage. “Now get back to work”, she hissed.

“Yes, master”, Mulan said and hurried back into the grinder room, not even looking at the master as she passed her.

Elsa had heard the lashing and sitting in her bed again she reached for her cross. Or at least she wanted to as she noticed just then that the cross together with the thread was gone. Her cross! She must have lost it! Oh no! She hoped that no one would find it.

That hope however was squashed as after the commotion with Mulan Aurora crept below the platform surrounding the grinder and found the cross lying next to the bearing of the gears. She picked it up and slipped it into one of her pockets. A grin crossed her face. She did know exactly what she'd do with it.

Elsa had tried to forget the events of the previous night and the ugly visage of the hooded rider. At the next morning she didn't even have any real appetite, but Ariel had nudged her to eat nevertheless. She had stemmed her hands onto her hips and tried to appear as intimidating and in command as possible, but she had utterly failed. The red haired girl was just too cute to pull something like that off. She had however managed to conjure a smile onto Elsa's face. Though Elsa had wondered how an innocent girl like Ariel could participate in whatever dark things were going on in this mill.

* * *

The weeks passed and so did the winter, nature started to live again. Work on the mill continued, both during the day as well as during every new moon at night. Though officially Elsa still wasn't supposed to know what happened during that night. She still wasn't allowed into the grinder room despite her strength having increased since the beginning of the year. To add to the already existing strangeness there were days at which the mill appeared to be deserted, at least of all human life beside her. It was those days that eleven raven were flying over the grounds of the mill only to fly through a hole in the mill's building like they had done during her arrival.

Soon enough however Easter came and with that the night of Elsa's testing. They had all come together in the chamber of the mill below the sleeping room, the room she had seen light come from when she had first set foot into the mill. It looked like the room she had seen in her dream that had lured her away from Rapunzel and Jane. Decorated, wooden columns supporting the ceiling with rods at the top that ended in carved raven heads.

All the gals were kneeing in a circle around a pentacle drawn onto the floor. The master was inside the and went to pairs of the girls.

“Go to a place where one died by force, there you'll spend the Easter night and return at dawn as the rite demands.”

The first two got up, Aurora and Jasmine. The master moved towards the next two.

“Go to a place where one died by force, there you'll spend the Easter night and return at dawn as the rite demands.”

Ariel and Pocahontas got up. Elsa and Mulan were next.

“Go to a place where one died by force, there you'll spend the Easter night and return at dawn as the rite demands.”

Both Elsa and Mulan started to get up, but the master grabbed Elsa's wrist.

“You'll come back?”, the master asked, searching Elsa's eyes for any doubts.

“Yes”, Elsa stated after a moment. Yes, she would come back. The master's grasp lessened and Elsa got up fully. She left the chamber closely following Mulan.

It was dark outside, but apparently Mulan knew the way. After a while they reached a large, old yew at the border of the forest. A bit further Elsa could see the few lights of the village of Schwarzkollm, its people preparing for the Easter night.

Mulan started a fire a bit away from the mighty tree and they both sat down beside it.

“What had happened here?” After all they had to go to a place where someone had died by force, so _something_ must have happened here.

“A gypsy got hanged here some years ago for practicing the dark arts, it's called Esmeralda's tree.”

Elsa gulped. “But isn't that what you... what we're doing as well?”

“They wouldn't hurt us.” Mulan gestured towards the village. “We're protecting them from the effects of the wars. That gypsy only had her own interests in mind.”

Somehow that didn't make Elsa feel more at ease.

They listened to the sounds of the village. Elsa could hear singing, probably from the little church she had seen when she had passed by at Schwarzkollm. The voice of a single woman stood out, the Kantorka, the lead singer. Anna had always told her how she wanted to be a Kantorka as well. Elsa smiled. Yes, Anna had a lovely voice. And whoever that girl was that was singing in Schwarzkollm, she sounded just like Anna did.

After a while the singing ended and a procession of candles was walking through the village, the Easter procession.

“Okay”, Mulan interrupted the soothing atmosphere. “Now it's time to introduce you to the dark arts.” Mulan reached for a piece of charcoal. “I'll draw a pentacle on your forehead and you on mine. And then we'll go for a walk”, she said with a wink. Elsa felt the other woman drawing the five-pointed star onto her head.

“I mark you with sign of the secret sisterhood”, Mulan intoned and then dropped the charcoal into Elsa's hand. “Your turn.”

Elsa nodded and drew a pentacle on the forehead of the raven haired woman, repeating the words she had said. Once Elsa was done and the charcoal thrown back into the fire Mulan sat down to the right of Elsa and reached for Elsa's hand.

“Close your eyes and slow your breathing.” Elsa did so. “Think of lightness, of freedom, of leaving your own body behind”, Mulan continued to instruct, though her breathing seemed to slow as well. “And now... imagine to stand up and walk away.” Elsa imagined that and felt herself standing up and walking a few steps, her hand still holding Mulan's. “Now open your eyes.”

Elsa opened her eyes and looked towards Mulan at her right, noticing how the other looked much less corporal, more like a fog condensed into a human form. She could however still recognize the features of the other woman. Elsa turn around and saw their bodies, hers and Mulan's still sitting next to the fire, holding hands, breathing calmly.

“What?”, Elsa asked surprised. What had happened? She had left her body? How?

“Right now we're spirits. Free to walk where we want for the night until we need to return to our bodies.” Elsa turned back towards Mulan who smiled at her. “You can let go of my hand now.”

Elsa released Mulan's hand and together they walked towards the village. Torches were lighted all around it by now and the people were celebrating the revival of Jesus Christ. A group of people passed them without even a hint of acknowledgment of their presence.

“They can't see us”, Mulan stated.

But then something caught Elsa's sight. Two strawberry-blonde pigtails, the remainder of the head covered by a green linen bonnet.

“Anna”, Elsa whispered, not a doubt in her voice. She was standing merely a few steps away from her sister who was tending to a bucket with the early flowers of the year. So it _had_ been Anna she had heard singing earlier.

“You know her?” Mulan's spirit came up beside her.

Elsa nodded. “She's my sister. Though I don't know what she's doing here. I had thought that she's with our godfather in Hoyerswerda.”

Mulan looked in thought. What was she thinking about? Was it bad that her sister was here?

It was then that two women walked around the corner next to them, carrying buckets with flowers. They were walking right towards were Elsa and Mulan were standing, but just moments before they could have touched Elsa's spirit body Mulan yanked her back.

“You must not touch them!”, Mulan exclaimed. But why? What was so bad about touching someone while being a spirit? It would have really helped if the senior journey woman had more instructions for her than just 'let's go for a walk'.

The two women with the buckets just passed Anna and greeted her with a giggle. Anna wanted to stand up to greet back, but her shoe managed to step onto the hem of her wide, green and embroidered skirt and she was falling backwards. Acting purely on instinct, ignoring both Mulan's order as well as her own fear of interacting with Anna, Elsa stepped forward to stop Anna's body from falling onto the dirty ground. She did not know whether her spiritual form would be corporal enough to do this, but she did it nevertheless. In the end it turned out to work. She held Anna at her armpits, her head resting against Elsa's chest.

Just as the two of them touched they both seemed to be emitting a golden shine, pushing back the grayness of the night. It was as if both of them were thrown right in the middle of a forest in autumn with the leaves around them all golden. And then Elsa felt the warmth of Anna's body against her, a warmth she hadn't felt in a very long time, a warmth she fought not to feel, because she didn't deserve to feel it. Yet here she was, holding her younger sister in her arms.

Mere moments had passed and Anna began to stir. Elsa helped her up so she'd stand for herself again. One hand she kept on Anna's arm, while slowly withdrawing. The younger woman turned around to take a look at her surveyor. Her eyes went wide when they took note of Elsa's spiritual form and a spark of recognition crossed them.

“Elsa”, she whispered. The way her sister said Elsa's name, much different to how the other women at the mill said it. They used it as a mere means of identification, but this single word from her younger sister contained so much longing, so much love that it was too much for Elsa. She released her sister's arm and the golden shine was pushed back by the darkness of the night again.

And apparently Anna wasn't able to see Elsa anymore. Her eyes searched the area in front of her where Elsa was still standing and doubt was crossing her features. She reached out with a hand, but Elsa had stepped back, out of her sister's reach. It had been too much. Elsa reminded herself why exactly she had distanced herself from Anna and why it had been better that way.

“Anna, everything alright?”, came the voice of a man who walked towards them. His almond shaped eyes and smooth raven black hair reminded her a bit of Mulan. Maybe they came from the same area? Were they related like Elsa and Anna were?

Anna smoothed out her skirt and righted her bodice. “Yes”, she answered her gaze still fixed on the location Elsa had been at. “Just my usual clumsiness.”

“Just make sure you don't get hurt. Kristoff would probably die of worry”, the men snickered. Who was Kristoff? Was he the reason Anna was in Schwarzkollm and not in Hoyerswerda?

To Elsa's surprise Mulan walked up right beside the man who was a head or two taller than the woman.

“Have you made up your mind?”, Mulan whispered towards him. Made up his mind for what? And wait... was he able to hear her? But what about others not being able to see them? At least not without touching them?

The man exhaled, but did not look at Mulan. “Yes, I'll do it.” Do what?

This dialogue did not help Elsa in any way to feel less confused. She turned around and Anna was walking away, still stealing glances at the location her and her older sister had touched at. It hurt Elsa to see her sister like this, but she couldn't help it. Elsa shook her head and looked at Mulan and the man again.

Mulan was smiling. “I'll call for you when the time has come.”

The man nodded and went off as well. Mulan walked up towards her.

“What was that about?”, Elsa asked.

“Freedom”, Mulan merely stated. “Come, let's get back to the tree.” She grabbed her arm and tugged her along.

Returning to their bodies was as uncomplicated as leaving them. Just sitting down into them had been enough.

“You should leave”, Mulan said after a while.

“What?” Elsa didn't understand what her companion was hinting at.

Mulan turned around to directly look at Elsa. “You should leave the mill. I see that you love your sister. You should go and join her.”

Why was Mulan suggesting that? Didn't she understand that Elsa was a danger to everyone as long as she wasn't in control of her curse? She shook her head. “I can't.”

“Yes, you can. You haven't committed to anything yet.” Mulan's arm reached up towards Elsa's forehead. “Let me just rid you of-”

“No!”, Elsa exclaimed and pushed Mulan's hand away, the ground around her freezing in the process. “I need to learn how to control my curse! I can't hurt her!” Elsa turned to look down at the village. “Not again”, she added in a whisper.

Mulan shook her head. “You don't know what you're getting yourself into.”

No, Elsa didn't know what she was getting herself into. Dark magic, completely contrary to the believes that had been ingrained into her since her childhood. That even her curse was a gift of God. Ha! As if. “No I don't, but I want this.” Did she really? She didn't know. The only thing she _did_ know was that she wanted to keep her sister safe, especially after meeting with her again, knowing that she was living so close to Elsa.

Mulan looked Elsa over, but in the end she relented. “If that is your wish.”

* * *

They had spent the remainder of the night with a short nap. During the way back to the mill Mulan had explained to Elsa what would be expected of her once they arrived there.

And so, in the first light of the day – the sun had not yet reached the clearing of the mill - Elsa placed her head below the yoke that had been fastened to the entry door of the mill, the same door she had come through all those weeks ago. The master was standing inside the building.

“I submit to the yoke of the Secret Sisterhood”, Elsa stated, her voice firm with purpose. She'd learn what she'd need to get her curse under control so that she could see her sister again.

“Bear in mind that you are a student. Bear in mind that I am your master”, the master said.

“I will be obedient to you, master, now and forever”, Elsa responded.

The master weakly slapped Elsa on one of her cheeks, then Elsa slipped through below the yoke and into the grinder room which she was finally allowed to enter.

They worked the whole day and the whole night without a pause. Emptying bags of grain into the grinder, carrying bags of flour into the storage room where the flour turned to grain again continuing the cycle anew. They were all exhausted and sweaty; the balls of Elsa's hands were chafed and had started to bleed. All in all Elsa was close to her breaking point. She didn't understand the sense behind this. At least not until Kida came up to her.

“You need to keep going”, she had wheezed. “It's to push you to your limits... and for you to break through them.”

It hadn't been much, but it helped her to keep going, despite the pain her hands and her hole body was putting her through. Not even her curse had the power to show itself.

Elsa was just howling a bag of freshly milled flour onto the cart that would bring the bags to the storage when the light of the next day peeked across the trees and reached the mill and the exhausted woman. The other journey women were leaving the mill building as well.

“Look at ya hands, lass”, Merida said with a smile, despite her exhaustion.

Elsa did as asked and looked at her hands and the bloody balls of her hands. But just then something happened. The blood vanished and the wounds closed themselves leaving nothing behind than the smooth skin that had been there before this day and night full of work. And just as the blood had disappeared her exhaustion had as well. Despite the lack of sleep she felt awake and full of energy.

“Now, pull the cart”, Kida suggested, reminding Elsa of the task that had been asked of her on her first day. But this time Elsa felt, no, knew that it would be different.

Elsa walked over to the front of the cart and grabbed its tongue. The ground wasn't as muddy as on her first day, but it was still wet enough. Nevertheless Elsa stemmed herself against the mud and... the cart moved! And not only a bit, but nearly effortlessly she pulled it three, four even five steps, before she stopped and dropped the wooden bar again.

The master came up to her, a smile on her face. A wide, honest smile. She slapped Elsa on the shoulder.

“Well, you've passed your probation.”

Elsa smiled. She had done it. She was now part of the mill. And the magic of the mill flowed through her just like her curse did. Put unlike her curse this gave her power, gave her purpose.

“I don't know about you”, the master said towards the other women, “but I think it's time to tope!”

Immediately they began to cheer and Elsa couldn't hide her excitement either.

They all spent the remainder of the day celebrating and drinking in abundance. They laughed at every silly joke or pun someone was sharing, Merida was playing on bagpipes and a few of the girls gave their best impressions of men or at least how massive and dull they imagined them to be.

It was during the night – all the girls were outside and giggling around – that Aurora came up towards Elsa.

“The master”, she giggled, “she calls for you.” Aurora had trouble to keep herself straight and collapsed onto the ground into a giggling pile.

What did the master want of her? As fast as her drunken body allowed Elsa walked over to the master's residence, the other building beside the mill and the barn. She entered the building which seemed darker, less lit than the building of the gals, but maybe it was just because of the night. She walked up towards the black door separating the corridor from the master's study. She knocked once. Much unlike the impatient knocks of her sister. Her lips nearly formed into a smile, but the door in front of her opening without anyone standing on the other side had her think better of it. She took the invitation and moved into the room. Just as she had passed the threshold the door shut again by itself.

She looked around. The room was lit by candles and through the few windows she could only see the darkness of the night. All of the walls were decorated in intricate designs, carved into the pitch-black panels so that the bright wood below the black cover came through, providing a strong contrast. A few cupboards with books and scrolls were hanging at the walls.

In the far left corner of the room stood a wooden desk, a chair in front of it, some more books and scrolls and a few wide, lit candles on top of it and the master in a second chair behind it. The master was not wearing the eye patch she wore during their first meeting and thus not only her blue eye was looking at her, but her yellow one as well. Not as strange as the eyes of the hooded rider, but not from this world nevertheless.

“You are keeping secrets from me.” The master's voice was calm, too calm to Elsa's liking. Nevertheless she walked closer towards the desk and the person that held her life in her hands. Elsa was still thinking about a good way to respond when the master held something up. It took her a moment to recognize the little object that was dangling at the end of a thread, but once she did her eyes went wide. Her cross! She fought down the urge to clasp her hands before her mouth.

“You can't keep this”, the master stated.

As Elsa had come up at the side of her master's desk said woman reached for Elsa's hand and placed the cross together with its thread in there.

“You must bury it. And never speak of it again.” The cold, yellow eye pierced through all the resistance Elsa might have possibly brought up. She closed her hand around the cross, feeling its familiar wooden form.

Holding back the tears as well as the ice that were both threatening to come she answered. “Yes, master.”

“Now go.” With a gesture towards the door the wooden wing swung open again, moved by whatever magic Elsa's master had been able to wield.

Without the need to be told again Elsa left her master's study and then the whole building. She ignored the other journey women that had already started the day's work and went towards the hen house.

In there, flushing the birds with her presence, she found a nice patch of earth and began to dig a small pit, just big enough to bury the cross in there.

Elsa thought back at how the cross had belonged to her and her sister's mother. The last worldly remnant of the woman that had cared for the two girls despite their father having been called into the wars. Elsa had thought that their mother would survive anything thrown at her, but reality had shown its ugly face. No, _death_ had shown its ugly face, the black death to be precise. Elsa and Anna had not only lost their mother at that day, but they had also lost their home, their past and their future. Elsa had snitched the cross from the neck of the man that was carrying her mother to a cart with bags containing more dead bodies. They were all to be burned so that the plague would not befall them. The man may have taken away her mother, but he didn't get their mother's cross!

But Elsa hadn't been able to stay with her sister. Her curse was simply too dangerous. She had handed the care of her sister over to her godfather Kai and his wife Gerda. She had told them that she'd go out into the world – or at least the surrounding area – to find a job to support herself and Anna, but in reality Elsa just wanted to get away, to keep as much distance as possible from her sister as to not hurt her anymore. Apparently Elsa's travels hadn't reached far enough considering that Schwarzkollm was very close to Heyerswerda.

Elsa placed the wooden cross in the pit and covered it loosely with the dirt she had dug up. Finally she placed a flat stone on top of it – not too obvious however – so that she'd be able to find it again if need be. Together with the cross she had now buried the memories of her mother and her sister, at least for now.

* * *

With her probation passed Elsa was now not only able to take part in the day to day business in the grinder room, but she was also allowed to take part in the dark millings during each night of the new moon. The conditions there were harsher than those during the day, the master more hard and more on edge, but she pushed through. And then there were the lessons of course, the lessons in the dark arts, taught by the master in the black chamber, the same she had left from during the Easter night and the same she had seen during her dream before she had traveled to the mill. The master was teaching them spells from the Koraktor, a big tome with white types on black pages. Elsa – like the others before her – had been handed a wooden stick, long enough to comfortably hold horizontally in front of her and thick enough to grasp comfortably, that had gotten infused with the dark magic. This stick was supposed to be her sword as well as her shield. At every free moment she had Elsa trained with the stick for example to let it hover in front of her, but it wasn't easy and up to now it had always dropped to the ground without even a bit of hesitation.

“You'll get there”, Mulan had said once Elsa had become too frustrated. “It took most of us all of summer.”

In addition the master had begun to teach Elsa in techniques to control her curse, to keep it in check. The master had told her to conceal her emotions, to not feel them, to not let them show. And so far it seemed to help. The mantra eased the situations in which otherwise ice would have sprouted from her, be it directly from her hands or indirectly from her mere presence.

Her most amazing experience was during a cloudy summer day, the day Elsa finally would become a journey woman herself. Her and all the other journey women were standing in a circle in the black chamber, all of them merely dressed in their white sleeping tunics. The master then stepped into the circle.

“It is time for you to take flight”, she said. All the girls turned around and removed their only piece of clothing only to replace it by a long, black coat with a hood. Once they were all wearing their coats and had turned around again the women around Elsa transformed one by one, shrinking in size, the coats beginning to shine, their faces elongating and their legs distorting until there were eleven ravens, the master and Elsa in the room. Immediately the ravens took flight and left the room through a window, the same window she had seen the ravens enter the building all those times. And now it would finally be her turn.

To say that Elsa was excited was an understatement. The master held out a hand for her and Elsa eagerly grabbed it.

“Your time as a novice has come to an end. From now you'll be a journey woman.”

As soon as the master had spoken these words Elsa felt herself change. The room around her appeared to grow, but in reality it was herself that shrunk. She felt the coat around her becoming a part of her, becoming her feathers. All her organs shifted to accommodate the form she was transforming into. Not much later it was all done. She looked up to her master and tried to say something, but all that came out was a caw.

“Now fly!”, the master exclaimed and shooed Elsa towards the window. “Fly and join your sisters!”

Elsa spread her wings – her wings! She had wings! – and began to flap. She lifted herself of the ground and pulled up her feet towards her body, her claws instinctively grasping together. As if it was second nature to her she flew out of the window and into the air. It was an amazing feeling, one she hadn't ever thought that she'd feel it. For the first time in forever she felt free. No worries, no problems, just air around her wings and the ground below her.

Ahead of her she spotted a murder of ravens, her fellow journey women, her sisters. Elsa's arrival amidst them was answered with excited caws, well from all except Ariel, who tried to, but no sound would escape her beak. It was strange. She was able to recognize all the eleven other journey women, despite them looking nearly identical. There were small minuscule differences between them, differences that were also visible with them being humans, but they weren't as pronounced there as they were overshadowed by the bigger differences between them. Merida's feathering for example appeared a bit more wild and the black feathers had a nearly unnoticeable tinge of red, the latter was also the case for Ariel. The color of Kida's feathers on the other hand were of a lighter shade of black.

“See you later, gals”, Snow White cawed and fell away from the group. The others followed suit and split into different directions.

“Don't forget, you have time till just before dusk”, Mulan said, before she dived, too and left Elsa behind.

Elsa didn't mind however. She enjoyed this new found freedom she had. Much more freedom than she had when she was walking around as a spirit during the Easter night. That was it! She could visit Schwarzkollm, see how Anna was doing.

She spotted the village right away and began to circle directly above it, trying to find the redhead she was looking for. And then she spotted her. She was walking out from one of the buildings towards a tree where she sat down below. Lucky for her the ground wasn't wet since it was merely cloudy, but it hadn't rained yet. Elsa was sure however that it wouldn't stay that way. For now however she wouldn't care either. She landed on one of the lowest branches of the tree her sister had sat down below of and looked at her. Unlike during the Easter night she was wearing less fancy clothes. Mainly they were of white and green linen, but there were still hints of green, albeit not as much as in her formal dress.

Anna's delicate hands were holding a tambour, on it were the beginnings of what appeared to be a flower, a crocus if Elsa guessed correctly.

Suddenly however Anna dropped the tambour onto her knees and let her head fall onto the bark she was sitting at. She sighed.

“It's more than two months and I still can't forget her”, Anna mumbled. “And I still don't know whether it was really her or just... just my imagination.”

Elsa stopped short. Was Anna... talking... about _her_? A small, confused caw escaped her beak which caused Anna to look up. Her eyes began to brighten and there was a little sparkle in it.

“Hello, little guy. Or girl. I don't know. Did my mumbling disturb you?” Anna was looking at Elsa expectantly, but the latter didn't know how to deal with this situation. She hadn't expected Anna to notice her and she didn't want to get too close. She didn't know whether her curse would manifest itself while she was in this form.

“Well, seems like I'm not as good as talking with animals as Kristoff is”, Anna finally said and began to turn away. Again this name, Kristoff. Who was that? Elsa didn't know anyone with this name. Her curiosity overwhelming her she let another caw escape and as expected Anna turned back to her.

“You answered me?”

Another caw. Anna's mouth fell open.

“I... I always had the feeling that ravens were smart, but this...” Anna pinched herself in the arm. “Ow. No, I'm not dreaming either.” She hesitated a moment, biting her lip in the process. The redhead nearly looked too adorable for Elsa. “Okay... if you can understand me, than caw three times in a row.”

Elsa did as asked, still wondering whether this was the biggest mistake she had done since the accident.

“Wow. You really _do_ understand me. Um... what now. Oh I know. Would you like to come down and come a bit closer? I've never seen a raven up close till now.”

Elsa contemplated Anna's request. The closer she was to her sister the more dangerous she'd be for her. Then again however the longing for Anna was more intense than ever. Being separated from her for so long – out of her own doing! – and now so close. She decided to take the risk and hoped that the training her master had given her would be enough to prevent any further accident.

Gracefully the black raven glided down towards the ground, landing nearly within arm's reach of Anna. Said woman had kept her eyes on the bird the whole time and once Elsa had landed Anna tried to absorb every detail of her avian body.

“You look pretty”, Anna blurted out.

If Elsa could have blushed she would have, instead however she playfully hid her head below a wing.

“Awwww, did I embarrass you?”

Elsa peeked out from under her wing again and cawed at her younger sister. Anna however reached with her hand towards Elsa.

“May I... may I touch you?”, she asked, once she noticed that Elsa was recoiling.

 _Conceal, don't feel._ Elsa didn't yet feel the ice to break through, but repeating her mantra would surely help. She took a deep breath and then stalked forward two steps to make it easier for Anna to reach her. A warm smile spread over the young woman's face once she noticed that the raven was indeed allowing to touch it. Her hand gently touched Elsa's hand and Elsa could feel the heat emanating from the body part. Slowly Anna began to pet Elsa's head and then continued with her body, Elsa loosing herself in the feeling. She lost herself so much that she first didn't even recognize how Anna's second hand come over and used both hands to pick up the raven and place it in her lap. Once Elsa did however she began to panic, fearing that she'd hurt Anna through her closeness. However both precisely this closeness as well as the soothing voice of her younger sister managed to calm her again.

“Shhhh. I'm not going to hurt you.”

Now both of Anna's hands were petting Elsa's body and despite the fear lurking in the back of her mind she enjoyed it the fullest.

“You feel a bit cold, you know that? Is that normal for ravens?”

Elsa looked up in worry, but she didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, her curse strangely behaving itself without any effort from her side. Maybe it was something inherent to the curse?

The two sisters had spent the remainder of the afternoon together, but near the evening Elsa had felt the familiar pull of the mill, a cry for her return. So with a sadness she hadn't expected at the start of the day she departed from her sister, but not before Anna had breathed a kiss onto Elsa's beak. As children Elsa had often given her little sister kisses on the forehead or on the cheeks, but now it had been Anna who had given her a kiss and with that Elsa felt more alive than in a long time.

Sapping on that powerful feeling she soared back to the mill. Shortly before the mill would have come into view she was joined by the other gals, by her other sisters, though the bond she shared with them was of a completely different nature than the bond she shared with Anna.

One by one they flew through the open window into the dark chamber and turned themselves back into humans, spewing feathers from their mouths once they had transformed. At least all except one. Ariel, still in her raven form, was flying around the room, her beak opening and closing as if she wanted to caw.

“She never manages it by herself”, Aurora said with a shake of her head and held out her hand, concentrating on the agitated raven. The bird fell to the floor and as soon as it landed there it transformed to the redheaded, mute woman they all knew. Spewing out a few feathers as well she smiled innocently at those around her.

* * *

Elsa was using every free time she had to train with her staff, to levitate it in front of her, to use it as a weapon to push back objects and to reflect stones thrown at her by Kida or Ariel, who were supporting her training as much as they could and slowly, but surely it was paying off.

Right now however they were working in the woods, preparing wood for the upcoming, colder seasons. Thanks to the strength the apprenticeship in the dark mill granted them the work was rather easy and what would have otherwise needed two strong men could be done by one of them. Elsa and Mulan were working on one fallen trunk of a tree, freeing it of branches and preparing it for the transport to the mill.

“Hey”, Mulan broke the comfortable silence that had descended between them.

“Hmm?”, Elsa responded, not bothering to look up.

“I saw you with your sister, at the day of your first flight.”

Now Elsa looked up towards the senior journey woman and gulped.

“And what of it?”

“Be careful. Love is a dangerous force in what we're dealing with, be it platonic love or... romantic.” For a moment Mulan seemed to be somewhere else with her thoughts, but it passed as quickly as the landscape had below Elsa during her flight.

“Why are you telling me this now, and not directly after my flight?”, Elsa asked and removed another branch with her axe.

“Because the master has her eyes everywhere.” Mulan looked around in concern and then concentrated back on Elsa. “Listen to me, Elsa, the master must under absolutely no circumstances learn about the name of your sister, do you understand?”

Elsa was confused. This seemed to be serious, but why was Mulan telling her this? Mulan seemed to see her confusion and leaned closer towards Elsa.

“Not everything is as it seems”, she whispered. “And once one knows the name of another one has control over them. Most people don't know how to really exert this control, but the master _does_.”

This definitely didn't ease the feelings Elsa still held about the on goings at the mill.

Just then however a raven was flying over the patch of the forest the gals were working in, cawing loudly. With a dreaded feeling Elsa noticed that it was the master herself who was flying high above them. Had she heard anything Elsa and Mulan had been discussing?

“Heed my warnings, Elsa”, Mulan said, looking at the raven in the air. “Now come, the master wants to see us all.”

They all dropped whatever they were doing and hurried towards the private chamber of the master where she already awaited them.

“I've seen soldiers on their way to the village.”

Elsa exhaled in surprise as did the others. _Anna!_ Her sister was in danger.

“We won't let them ravage the village however, they might find us in that case.” The master looked at the group gathered before her, looking at each of her apprentices. “A couple of you will go and ensure that the soldiers leave our village alone.” She turned towards the senior journey woman. “Mulan, you will lead them. Elsa will join you, as will Belle, Merida and Pocahontas. Show them, that they shouldn't dare to deal with the Secret Sisterhood of the Black Mill”, the master said with a wicked smile.

The five women immediately went out to protect the village, their magically improved speed carrying them far faster towards their destination than normal men or women would have been able to. It appeared that they arrived just in time.

“Look, the gals from the mill”, an older woman stated to one next to her, once the group had arrived at the village. “I wonder what they're doing here.”

“Soldiers are coming!”, Mulan began to shout, once she had entered the village square. “Go into your houses, barricade the doors, we will stand and fight!” The villagers began to panic and fled into their homes. At least nearly all of them, a few men stayed back, the man with the almond eyes from the Easter night among them.

“Shang, what are you doing? You need to get yourself to safety!”, Mulan exclaimed towards them. Shang... so that was his name. At least now Elsa knew that, though that also brought back the discussion she had led with Mulan just before the master had summoned them all.

“This is our village, we'll fight for it!”, Shang replied.

“You'll only manage to get yourself killed!” Were they really that bad off that the men would be of no help? Then again they weren't boosted with dark magic like the gals were.

Just as Shang wanted to retort a group of around fifteen horses broke around a corner, their riders firm in their saddles, swords at their side.

The gals readied their staffs, forming a defensive line between the remainder of the village and the attackers. The men of the village readied themselves as well, but despite being more massive they didn't look as intimidating as the women did, probably because the panic they had was showing.

One of the riders strode forward towards the group of women at the front. His hair was as red as Merida's though much shorter, his face framed by sideburns.

“Oh, look at that, how cute. A couple of girls with sticks hoping to defend the village while the men are cowering behind them”, he sneered. “Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but that won't be enough. We will ransack this village and we'll have our fun with you lot as well.”

Elsa suppressed a smirk. That man on his high horse did know nothing at all. Like her companions she held her staff in front of her, concentrating on the dark magic flowing through her veins. She might yet have to get the levitation of the staff right, but she _was_ able to defend herself and others as her trainings with Ariel and Kida have shown.

Just as the man wanted to raise his sword to sound for the attack glyphs of an intense, unnatural yellow began to glow at the ends of the gals' staffs which made him stop his action. Not that it would have mattered much anyway.

The women launched their staffs forward, the momentum of the wooden stick transmitting through the air into the bodies of the first five riders and horses, among them that apparent leader of them. All five men were thrown backwards off their horses, the animals pushed aside and onto the ground as well. The other riders were too perplexed to react so that the next five were hit by a similar attack. The final five dismounted from their horses and charged at the defenders with their swords drawn, but again they were pushed away by the force of the staffs, this time most of them were even knocked into fences or house walls, knocking them out.

The other soldiers had recovered in the meantime and tried to take the gals from the sides, but they were spotted and just like before thrown across the village, again with some of them knocked unconscious. At one point Elsa even thought that she had heard a neck snapping. With the gals not being a viable target the attacking men shifted their attention towards the croup of men hiding next to one of the houses, to surprised at the force of the women to react themselves.

A sword was being swung at Chang, but he blocked with the thick stick of his. He tried to retaliate with a stab himself, but the attacker – it was the leader of the soldiers – dodged and used the opening left by the men to slice at his arm. Shang cried out in pain. Mulan noticed his predicament and used her staff to push the attacker into the wall of the house in front of which they were fighting.

Elsa and the others had taken care of the remaining attackers who were all either unconscious or had died due to the impact onto something.

Now none of the raiders was a threat anymore and all their horses had fled the scene.

“Shang! Are you alright!”, Mulan hurried towards the man. “You're bleeding!”, she exclaimed once she examined the wound in his arm. “Here, let me help you.” She placed a hand on his wound – the men flinched a bit, but kept his posture otherwise – and Mulan mumbled a few words. Once she removed her hand only a light scar remained where there had just been a bloody wound. Mulan was able to heal wounds? Elsa wondered when she'd learn that spell as well.

“You're rather amazing, you know that?”, Shang said, first looking at the scar and than at the woman in front of him.

Mulan didn't say anything however and instead kissed the men she had just healed. “You are a fool”, she chastised once she broke the kiss. “You could have been killed.”

Pocahontas then came up next to the two. “We should get rid of the soldiers before they came to again.”

Mulan nodded in agreement. She looked at Elsa and smirked. “Time to see whether your levitation training paid off.”

Elsa gulped. _Oh dear._

Pocahontas closed up to the other three girls and together they held out their staffs and started to levitate the unconscious or dead bodies in front of them. Mulan behind them did the same with the body of the leader. Slowly the procession walked out of the village.

Just as Mulan passed the last building she saw a figure in the corner of her eye.

“So his name is Shang”, voiced the figure. A cold shiver ran down Mulan's spine and she nearly dropped the soldier she was levitating in front of her. It was her master who had spoken and she now knew her boyfriend's name! 

* * *

With the soldiers dealt with peace descended upon the village and by extension the black mill again. Something had changed however as Mulan was much more withdrawn and harsh than Elsa had gotten to know her.

Then one day in autumn it became clear to them all. They all were just sitting at breakfast when Aurora stormed into the parlor.

“Quick!” She was catching her breath and then pointed outwards. “At the mill stream!”

Before she could say anything more Mulan had jumped up from her seat place and darted out of the door, the other journey women following closely behind.

When they arrived at the mill stream Mulan was already there, kneeling at the bank with somebody cradled in her lap. Elsa covered her mouth in shock once she recognized who it was. It was Shang! He looked as if he'd been in the water for hours, but more importantly he looked dead. Elsa shook her head. No, he didn't merely look dead, he _was_ dead. She didn't really know the man, she had only seen him twice, but she knew by now that Mulan's feelings for him were strong. Else felt sorry for the woman, she couldn't imagine how she would react if it would be Anna that would lying dead and puffy in the water.

But what was Shang doing here anyway? Normally the people in the village don't have any business at the black mill. The gals are the ones that fetched the corn and returned the flour to them or any other markets they'd be able to reach.

Elsa glanced at her fellow companions. They all looked rather wrecked by this, just like Elsa felt herself. At least all except Aurora. She was looking defiantly at Mulan and the corpse of her boyfriend. Elsa thought back at the night the master had called for her because of the cross. It had been Aurora as well who had relayed the message. Whatever it was, Elsa would be wary of the woman from now on. 

* * *

 

Mulan herself had brought the dead body of Shang back to the village so that he could be given a proper funeral, but afterwards she was even more withdrawn and when she did answer someone she was easily angered, snapping at whoever had talked to her.

The days became shorter with the end of the year approaching and what surprised Elsa the most was the state the master appeared to be in. She looked much older than what Elsa knew of her from the previous year. Gray, frayed hair framed her face and she ushered the journey women to work with much more force. Gone was the woman that they all could drink with.

Then, at the last day of the year, the master left the mill on a sled drawn by a single horse. She had to be helped onto the sled by one of the gals, so weak she had become. Would they see the master again? What would become of them if their master should die on her journey? What would become of Elsa?

While normally the change of the year was an event to be celebrated the journey women of the mill didn't feel like celebrating. Especially not with the senior journey woman being as much on edge as she was. Instead they cleaned up the grounds and the mill as good as they could and once night fell they were all in their sleeping chamber, at least all except Mulan. After a while, she entered the room as well, looking strangely at peace with herself.

“The animals are all locked away”, she said to no one in particular. She went to her bed and dressed herself in her tunic, placing her usual clothes neatly folded on the just as well righted blanket. Elsa couldn't make sense of the actions of the senior journey woman. The others however didn't appear as confused, they merely looked sorry. What _was_ going on?

Only dressed in her tunic Mulan walked over to Elsa's bed and knelt beside her.

“It had been a good year. Took a turn for the worse in between, but overall a good year.” Mulan patted Elsa's arm that was resting on the rim of the bed. “You've done well, as everyone in this mill does.” Why did this sound like a farewell?

“Mulan, what's going on?”, Elsa asked.

“You'll be fine, Elsa”, was Mulan's sole answer before she got up and walked over to the staircase.

“It's been a joy.” She said and looked at all the other journey women in the room. “Don't come after me.”

Elsa didn't like this. Her intuition told her that something bad was about to happen.

Mulan walked down the staircase and closed off the trap door that separated the sleeping chambers from the staircase and normally stood open throughout the year. If Mulan's behavior hadn't been suspicious already, then this action would have definitely confirmed that something was wrong.

Then, without warning, a loud scream pierced the silence of the year's last night, Mulan's scream. And was that snarling Elsa was hearing?

Mulan was in danger! Elsa had to help her! She jumped out of the bed and towards the counter weight that would have helped her to open the heavy trap door, but it didn't budge. Even hanging herself completely onto the rope that went through a pulley below the ceiling didn't help. For some reason the trap door was sealed shut.

Suddenly she felt someone pulling at her, thus loosening her grip on the rope. It was Kida.

“We need to help her!”, Elsa screamed at the white haired woman. However instead of doing anything to help Mulan Kida merely grasped Elsa and held her close.

“There's nothing we can do”, Kida responded and help Elsa close like a mother did a child. At least Elsa did definitely feel just as helpless.

Both the screaming and snarling went on for a while until silence descended upon the black mill again. Having the feeling that she knew exactly what the outcome downstairs had been Elsa let herself be guided back to her bed by Kida. Elsa didn't want to sleep, however she managed to cry herself to sleep with snowflakes dancing all around her.

* * *

Once they all had awoken at the next morning, the first day of the new year, they were able to open the trap door again. What Elsa saw down there matched the noises she had heard. Mulan's body was lying lifeless on the ground, covered in bite marks, a puddle of already dried blood around her.

After they had dressed for the weather they had placed Mulan in a coffin that strangely had been at the ready in the workshop. Six of them carried the simple, wooden box to a clearing in the forest that surrounded the mill. The clearing was filled with various heaps of stones covered by snow. _More graves_ , Elsa mused. What surprised her more however was that there was already a pit dug they could lower the coffin into. Who had dug that? Did they knew that someone, that Mulan was going to die?

The eleven women worked in silence while they lowered the coffin into the grave and covered it with the soil that was piled next to the grave. When they had reached an even surface the others left, leaving only Elsa behind. She didn't want to leave the grave in such a state, not when the others in the clearing were covered in piles of stones. Thus she spent the time till early afternoon with finding suitable stones and piling them up to a heap.

When Elsa placed the last stone she let her hand linger on the mineral for a while longer.

“Thank you for your guidance. I don't know whether I would have managed without you”, she whispered, tears flowing again for the first time since they brought the dead body here – the work had distracted her too much.

As she entered the mill again Elsa immediately knew that something was off. The joyous sounds that came to her from the parlor were proof enough of this. She went into the room and felt herself thrown into a celebration, not as much as after she had finished her probation, but definitely much more than was suitable for an occasion like this. Her ice started to nudge at her fingertips.

“Are you out of your minds?!”, Elsa shouted getting everyone's attention just like she hoped she would.

“We're celebrating Kida's designation as senior journey woman”, Jasmine stated dryly, sipping from a cup that Elsa assumed was containing something alcoholic.

“Mulan is below the ground for not even half a day and you're celebrating like nothing happened?!” Elsa was enraged. How could they forget Mulan's death so quickly? How could they live on just like this?

“Enough”, a voice cut off anything further that Elsa might have said, a voice she had not expected to hear, the voice of their master. The woman stood up from the bank at the far side of the room, dressed in her black winter coat with her tricorne on her head and the eye patch covering her yellow eye. However the master looked much more fit than when she had left the mill two days ago. There was no sign of gray hair, no wrinkles distorting her face and her whole demeanor was much more powerful and energy laden. In short she looked like she had when Elsa had first met her nearly a year ago.

“Wha- master?!” To say that Elsa was confused was an understatement.

“Come, walk with me”, the master said and strode past Elsa in a powerful gait.

Elsa followed the master out and around the building before the latter began to talk.

“I liked Mulan, I really did.” She placed a hand on Elsa's shoulder while they continued to walk. “But death is master of us all and we'll submit.” But judging from the events that had transpired in the mill Elsa supposed that some had special deals with death.

With her other hand the master pointed at Elsa. “You are still young, Elsa. One day you'll understand.”

Oh, she understood already very well, but nevertheless she said nothing and continued to walk alongside the master.

* * *

It was on the fifth day of the year that the master had ordered them to find a new apprentice, so that they would be twelve in number again, none more and none less. The women had flown out as ravens, following the guiding presence of their master and providing themselves a guidance for the newcomer.

With their task accomplished they went – as humans again – into the grinder room, waiting for their new sister to enter the mill and to accept the master's offer of teaching. For a moment Elsa wondered what would happen if someone would decline that, but then she remembered how attracted she had been to the offer of a warm home and food and that little voice in her head nudging her to be taught in everything else as well.

But all these thoughts were forgotten when the water wheel started to turn by itself. The newcomer had accepted and the journey women were celebrating this in the grinder room by playing amidst the turning gears, throwing flour at each other in mock fights.

When night had fallen they all walked into the sleeping chamber, quietly as not to wake the new apprentice too early. Once all of them were there, Kida woke the sleeping woman and began to introduce herself and the others. Elsa was standing in the back, not yet seeing what the new one looked like. But that all changed when Kida reached Elsa and stepped aside a bit so that both Elsa and the new woman would have the chance to see each other.

“And that is-”, Kida began, but was interrupted by the new woman.

“Elsa?”

It took a moment for Elsa to recognize the voice and the brunette crowned face with the green eyes that were looking at her. But once she did her mind was filled with joy. “Rapunzel?”

The brunette woman got up and tackled Elsa into a hug.

“It is you!”, she exclaimed and loosened the hug. “I never thought I'd see you again!” Rapunzel looked Elsa up and down. “Look at you! I don't remember you looking that well fed.” The woman playfully poked Elsa in the stomach.

“And soon so will you”, Elsa replied with a smile and ruffled the short brown hair of her former companion. However for a moment her mind was clouded by the memories of the past year, of what bad things were happening at the mill. She wasn't sure whether she wanted the curious, innocent bundle of energy in front of her being tainted by that as well.

“Ya knew each other?”, Merida asked and the dark thoughts that Elsa had receded into the back of her mind.

“We went begging together. At least until the master called out for me.” That brought up another thought however and Elsa looked at Rapunzel. “How's Jane?”

The smile that fell from Rapunzel's face faster than the smallest gear of the mill could turn told her everything she needed to know. “She died.” Rapunzel looked down at the floor. “The last onset of winter was too much for her.”

Elsa did the only thing that she thought she should do and brought the other woman into a tight embrace.

“For the last few weeks I had been alone, Elsa.” Rapunzel sobbed. “It was only when I had the dream about the mill that I felt hope again.”

Elsa patted the back of Rapunzel's head. “Shhhh. Everything is alright now. You are no longer alone.” At that moment Elsa swore to herself that she'd take Rapunzel under her guard, that she wouldn't let the others bully her like they did Elsa. She knew that she wouldn't be able to protect her from the dark of the mill, but she'd at least protect her from the other journey women.

A cough interrupted the embrace of the two friends.

“I think we should get to bed. Tomorrow our work starts again”, Kida said.

Nodding, Elsa let loose of Rapunzel and soon everyone went to their beds.

However sleep didn't come easy for Elsa, too many things were on her mind. So she found herself sitting on the staircase leading up to the sleeping chamber from the ground floor musing about the happenings of the last year, the events that transpired during the change of years and the arrival of her friend Rapunzel. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't recognized someone coming down the stairs and sitting down themselves next to Elsa.

“Can't sleep?”, asked Kida's voice in a concerned tune.

“No. I'm still unable to make head or tail of all this.” Elsa paused and looked at the white haired woman next to her. “Why did Mulan have to die? And how did it happen? What about the master? How does she suddenly look so young again?”

“It's the cycle of the mill”, Kida began to explain. “Each new year's eve one of the apprentices has to die so that the master can live on. Normally it's the senior journey woman who has to die as the one most experienced and thus most threatening to the master. The year before you came it had been Eilowny, then Mulan and this year...”, Kida's voice trailed off.

“It will be you”, Elsa finished in understanding and Kida nodded, thankful that it wasn't her that had to finish the sentence. “And you are okay with that? You are _all_ okay with that?” Elsa couldn't believe this. How would they all willingly walk into death, being nothing more than something to prolong the life of their master. Then again she had agreed to this as well. It was probably for the better that she had learned about this only now at the beginning of her second year at the mill and not right from the beginning.

“It's the way it is.” Kida looked straight onto the wall ahead of them, her gaze becoming unfocused. Elsa didn't know what to say. The days of the woman next to her had started to be counted and Kida knew it, everyone besides Rapunzel knew it now.

Kida then got up and placed a reassuring hand on Elsa's shoulder. “Don't worry. It's not your time yet. Now try to get some sleep.”

* * *

The next day Elsa helped Rapunzel find her way around the mill, avoiding the pitfalls that Elsa had fallen in. The days since Rapunzel's arrival first became weeks and then months. Unlike Elsa Rapunzel hadn't snooped into the millings during the nights of the new moon. If she had witnessed anything then she didn't let it show. But with the Easter night this was about to change anyway. Like last year they had all met in the black chamber and just like then the master sent of pairs of them with the same saying.

“Go to a place where one died by force, there you'll spend the Easter night and return at dawn as the rite demands”, the master said and off was the first pair, Tiana and Cinderella.

Next were Rapunzel and Kida and afterwards followed Elsa and Ariel.

Elsa wanted to see Anna again so she had convinced Ariel to spend the night at the yew that overlooked Schwarzkollm. Elsa looked at the young redhead that was sleeping next to the trunk of the mighty tree. Despite Ariel's muteness Elsa had learned during the past year to more or less understand the gestures the woman was using to communicate. Her gestures together with her expressions only formed crude parts of sentences, but with enough context one could piece together their meaning. The most astonishing however was that the woman always carried the widest and most honest smile of anyone at the mill. How she managed to keep so sprightly always wondered Elsa.

She turned to look at the village ahead of them. She could see the fires being prepared for the celebration of the Easter night. They looked quite a bit less orderly than last year and some looked like they merely were glimmering instead of burning brightly. And then it occurred to Elsa that she didn't hear the singing of the Easter choirs she had heard last year. Something was wrong, Elsa felt it in her whole body. She looked over to Ariel who was still asleep and for a moment she contemplated to wake the woman, but in the end she decided against it. As quietly as possible Elsa stood up and made her way down to the village.

What she saw there however made her whole body freeze. The buildings were in ruins! Black, burned and sometimes still glowing ruins!

“Anna”, she whispered once the devastation became clear to her. She searched all around the remains of the village, at the ruins of the house Anna had lived in, but she was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully Elsa hadn't see any bodies at all however, so that gave her hope that her sister was still alive somewhere, though she hoped that they hadn't been kidnapped by soldiers.

It was then that Elsa noticed the faint noise of singing. She followed the sound and soon found herself in a part of the village that hadn't been a victim of the flames, amidst it the small village church. With dread Elsa walked up towards the side of the church and glimpsed through one of the small windows. There were people in there, singing Christian songs. Some of the villagers she recognized from the few flour deliveries Elsa had accompanied – all of them without seeing Anna however. Elsa stretched her neck to see more of the room, but her sister was nowhere to be seen. No, it couldn't be, Anna had to be alive! She began to panic at the thought of having lost her sister, the ground around her already frozen more than it had been before.

“Elsa?”

And just like that all the panic vanished into nothingness. Elsa whipped around and to her relief her sister stood in front of her. “Anna!” Forgetting all fear about hurting her sister, driving merely by the feeling of not having lost her sister Elsa run forward and tackled her younger sibling into the most fierce hug she had ever given.

“You are okay”, Elsa whispered, tears beginning to flow. “I thought I had lost you.”

Her younger sibling returned the hug. “Not that I don't appreciate the gesture...” Anna sounded unsure. “... but what are you doing here?”

Elsa broke the hug and looked into her sister's eyes. What did she mean with that? She had spent quite some of her raven flights during the last half year with her sister. At least always when Anna had been around alone, so why didn't Anna remember this? And just like that her stupidity became apparent to her. Of course Anna didn't know that she had been the raven. Anna merely knew her as the smart, company loving bird, but not as Elsa, her sister.

“Uhm... about that... I-I work at the mill”, Elsa answered sheepishly.

“You-” Anna's eyes first widened in surprise, but then hardend in anger. “You work at the mill, but you never came to visit me?!”, she exclaimed, poking Elsa in the chest.

Elsa backed off, her hands held up in defense. “We're not allowed to leave the mill. But I _did_ visit you. Remember the previous Easter night when I caught you after you tripped? And the raven that visited you during the previous half year? That was me.”

“Wait, what? That really was you last year? But why didn't I see you around? And what do you mean with the raven? It can't possibly be...”

Elsa placed a finger on top of Anna's lips.

“It's dark magic, Anna. Don't question the why, it is how it is.”

“Dark magic? But Elsa, why? What about our upbringing?” Anna was enraged and Elsa looked ashamed.

“I did what I had to do to survive. And to keep you safe.”

“Keep me safe? Elsa, look at me!” Anna reached for Elsa's chin and got Elsa to look at the younger sibling, her eyes filled with concern. “Keep me safe from what?”

Elsa sighed. It was no use of hiding it. “From me, Anna. To keep you save from me.”

“You? But why would you harm me? You are my sister, you would never hurt me!”

“But I already did!” Elsa held up her hand and conjured a few snowflakes above her open palm resulting in a gasp of her younger sister.

“Oh, Elsa, that is beautiful!” There was absolutely no fear in Anna's eyes, only amazement and curiosity just like it had been all those years back. Elsa closed her palm and the snowflakes vanished.

“No, it's not. It's a curse. A curse that had nearly cost you your life! I needed to find a way to control it! That mill is the answer.”

Anna appeared to be in thought. “You mean... the-the accident?” Elsa didn't know how much Anna remembered of that night back then. They had played together and as Anna had become too reckless she had been hit by an ice blast of Elsa to the head. Their mother had taken Anna to a healer right away and he had gotten Anna back to her feet again, but not without the memories of the accident having vanished from Anna's mind.

“But Elsa, that's no reason to turn to dark magic, there has to be another way!”, Anna exclaimed.

“No Anna, there isn't”, Elsa turned to look away from her sister's piercing gaze again. “It is how it is”, she repeated the words that Kida had told her at the start of the year.

However Anna wanted to hear nothing of it and reached for Elsa's hands, grabbing them tightly. Elsa inhaled, wanting to recoil, but Anna held her sister in place.

“I'm not going to believe that. Come to live here in Schwarzkollm. We'll find a solution together!”

“I...” It sounded tempting. She had given up on doing this by herself already, but feeling her sister's warm hands around her own awakened a warm feeling in her heart. She wouldn't be able to escape the master's hold on her own, but now she was out here already... She'd just need to wash away the pentacle on her forehead.

“Elsa!” A voice interrupted her thoughts, a voice she didn't recognize. She turned around towards the source of the voice and saw Ariel running through the village's ruins towards the church. “Elsa, we need to go, dawn is nearly upon us!”

Elsa didn't believe her ears. “Ariel?! You can talk? But you were mute all year and everyone in the mill said so themselves?!”

“It's a cover, okay? We need to get back!”

Elsa looked from Ariel to her sister and back again. Should she go back to the mill with all its darkness and death or should she turn over a new page with her sister, bonding with her again and trying to find a way to deal with Elsa's curse? Elsa made up her mind and fastened her hold on her sister.

“I'm not going back.”

“You... what?” Ariel looked at Elsa in total surprise.

“I'm not going back to the mill. I'm staying here with my sister.” Elsa smeared the charcoal pentacle at her forehead with her sleeve. What she didn't expect next however was Ariel reaching out with her hand, resulting in Elsa to lose her footing and fall to the ground. So that's how it felt to be hit by one of those spells. But how had Ariel managed that without a staff?

“Are you out of your mind?”, Ariel spat. “The master will find you anyway!” Elsa's hope deflated. She hadn't thought of this. Only because she would have escaped the master's grasp didn't necessarily mean that she'd got rid of her influence as well. “I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this”, Ariel gestured towards the ruins of the village, “was her doing as well.”

Both Ariel and Elsa ignored the surprised gasp of Anna.

“But we can't let her continue like this”, Elsa stated while she got up from the ground.

“And you think running away will accomplish anything?” Ariel shook her head. “No, it doesn't work that way.”

“Is there nothing we can do?”

Ariel hesitated for a moment, looking deep in thought. “There is a way... But do you trust me?”

Now it was Elsa who hesitated. Did she really trust the woman who had lied to them all about her inability to talk? Who had dared to attack her with a spell? Then again the woman had provided her with a potential way to end the master's dark work. If only Elsa knew what she was embarking on. But like before after her discussion with Anna she made up her mind.

“I do.” Elsa reached out her hand for Ariel to take who did that with a smile.

“Good. But now we really need to return or we're both doomed if we don't show up in time.”

This time it were Elsa's eyes that widened. She turned towards her sister and gave her a quick hug.

“We'll end this. And then we'll start anew, yes?”, Elsa asked.

“Take care. If you need anything, then just ask”, Anna answered and let go of her older sibling.

After a last glance at Anna both Ariel and Elsa hurried back towards the mill. The first light of the day already started to fight back the darkness of the night.

“Your pentacle!”, Ariel suddenly exclaimed and Elsa's eyes widened in fear.

Elsa didn't know what would happen if she showed up without the pentacle on her forehead.

“I don't care.” Elsa saw the sun slowly creeping up behind the horizon. “We won't reach the mill in time anyway.” They had spent to much time in Schwarzkollm and it was all Elsa's fault. If she hadn't hesitated so long than they wouldn't be in this situation. She dreaded what the master would do to them.

“Not if I have a say in that.” Ariel stopped running and reached a hand out towards the sun. She appeared to be in deep concentration and soon enough Elsa could see what the woman was doing. Dark heavy clouds were appearing around the sun and then spreading over the whole sky, starting to pour down their wet load upon them. In moments both Ariel and Elsa were wet to their skin, the pentacle of Ariel and the remnants of it of Elsa both washed away. Ariel was a much more powerful wizard than she had let on in the past, her not being able to transform back from a raven probably a ploy as well.

Breathing heavily they reached the door with the yoke, the master waiting behind it. Elsa was the first who placed herself below the wooden barrier, the master checking her forehead.

“Where's your mark?”, the master asked.

Behind Elsa Ariel gestured towards the sky and shrugged with an innocent smile. For a moment Elsa wasn't sure whether the master would buy it, but then the older woman patted Elsa's cheek.

“Foolish girls. Both of you. Into the grinder room with you!”

Again they worked throughout the day and the following night only to celebrate the end of Rapunzel's probation just like Elsa's had been the year before.

* * *

A week later Elsa and Ariel met in the middle of the night in the parlor. The redhead was distributing flour around them in a circle, mumbling a few words all the while. Once the circle was closed the flour shimmered golden for a moment.

“Now we can talk”, Ariel began once both had sat down inside the circle.

“You said there was a way to end this?” Elsa came right to the point. She wanted to know whether it was worth that she had come back to the mill.

Ariel nodded. “At the last day of the year someone who loves one of the gals must come to the mill and must request the release of that gal. The master will do a test and if the person passes the master will die instead of an apprentice.”

So far so good. The only thing that bugged Elsa was the “love” part. “What kind of love? I don't have a partner like Mulan did.” Suddenly it dawned on Elsa. “That was what she was discussing with Shang? He should request her freedom?”

Ariel inclined her head. “Yes. And it probably would have worked if the master hadn't learned his name.” She ground her teeth. “But to answer your question: it doesn't need to be romantic love. I can tell that both you and your sister love each other dearly. That will do as well.”

Elsa had already expected an answer like this. But she didn't want to drag her sister into this. Then again Anna _had_ said that she wanted to help.

“What if the person fails the test?”

Ariel looked away for a moment, then sighed and looked into Elsa's eyes. “Both the apprentice and their loved one will die.”

“No!”, Elsa exclaimed and stood up a bit too fast, nudging a table next to them with a ceramic pot on it. The pot began to tumble and then fell to ground where it splintered with a loud noise.

Immediately Ariel looked at Elsa with accusing eyes.

“Sorry”, Elsa answered meekly, her face blushing.

Ariel then hurried to hide the shards of the pot as well as the circle of flour, before they both darted towards the corner of the room that would be hidden behind the door wing if the door opened. They hadn't quieted down for a heartbeat when the door swung open, the profile of the master's face appearing behind the wooden door wing. Thankfully though she didn't look into the corner Ariel and Elsa were hiding in and soon left the room again, closing the door, none the wiser what she had missed.

Elsa and Ariel both let loose the breath they had been holding.

“Why is it that you never tried this yourself?”, Elsa asked once she was sure the master was far enough away again.

“I have no one who loves me”, Ariel responded. “Now, are you going to do this?”

Elsa contemplated this. The master was dangerous and if they failed it would not only cost Elsa her life, but Anna hers as well. But could they really continue like this for all eternity?

“I'll do it.”

“Good. Your most important task will be to hide your sister's name from the master. Knowing a person's name means that one can control them, you understand?”

Elsa nodded. “Mulan had told me this already.”

“But knowing that you must keep her secret won't be enough. We'll have to train you. The master will test you once she notices something is going on, she will try to break your will. We'll have to strengthen your willpower. That's the key to her defeat.”

* * *

During the coming weeks and months the day to day work on the mill continued. Just like the teaching of the dark arts did – to Elsa's delight she did indeed learn how to heal others – and the millings during each night of the new moon. But unlike last year Elsa and Ariel used each free time they could get to work on Elsa's willpower, to strengthen it. Ariel was a merciless teacher, probing her mind, invading her thoughts, but then again she needed to be if Elsa wanted to even have a spark of hope of defending against the master's might.

In addition to their secret trainings Elsa smuggled a bit of additional flour towards the village each month. Rebuilding it went slowly and providing the flour was the least that she could do. To stay hidden she used her planned work trips into the forest and hid a bag of flour below the roots of an old, dead tree.

Today was another of these trips. Elsa had just placed the bag at its hiding place, repeating in her mind the steps she needed to take to defend herself against the master, when a voice startled her.

“I had the thought it was you who we had to thank for the additional flour.”

A smile crept onto Elsa's face once she recognized the voice as her sister's and the ice that had threatened to be released from her palms receded back deep into her body. She turned around to look at her younger sibling. Like during most of her visits of Anna as a raven the girl was wearing simple day-to-day garb, useful for work on the field or – like in this case – the woods. Her hair was in two braids hanging to the left and right of her face.

“It is the least I could do.”

“What about that plan of yours?”, Anna asked.

Elsa breathed in sharply. She hadn't yet told her younger sister what she'd need to do and what the consequences would be. She definitely needed to rectify this. Elsa gestured towards one of the tree's roots that was at the right height for them to sit on. Once they both were sitting Elsa began to explain the situation.

“I'll need you to request my freedom. Then you'll have to do a test and if you pass the master will die and we'll all be free.”

“Oh, that sounds easy!”, Anna exclaimed with excitement.

“Hold your horses, Anna. There is a downside. If you fail we'll both die.”

“Oh.” For a few moments the smile disappeared from Anna's face, but then it returned, even wider than before. “But I'll manage. I'll bid you free and then we can live together again. This nightmare will be just a dark memory then.”

Elsa shook her head in wonder. Her sister never ceased to amaze her. This positivity regarding all and everything, but especially regarding Elsa, the one who had left Anna alone in the care of their godfather.

“In that case I'll send for you once the time has come”, Elsa continued.

“How will I recognize it was you who sent them?”

That was indeed an interesting question.

“Oh, I know!”, Anna suddenly exclaimed. “Do you have a knife?”

“Sure.” Elsa reached towards her hip and brought up her knife. She had gotten it during her first year at the mill. “What do you need it for?” She presented the hilt towards Anna.

Anna took the knife, placed it in her lap and began to open one of her braids. She then cut a curl of hair and then weaved it into a ring.

“Here!” Anna handed the ring and the knife to Elsa. “That will be our shibboleth. If whoever comes from the mill to get me carries this I'll know its from you.”

Elsa nodded. Yes, that would work. She returned the knife towards the holder at her hip and hid the ring in her pocket.

“I should get back to the mill”, Elsa then said and got up.

“And I to the village. See you soon.” Anna got up as well and quickly hugged her older sister before the two siblings parted ways again.

At the next meeting with Ariel Elsa handed her the ring for safekeeping. She would be Elsa's messenger when the time had come.

* * *

The more the year was coming to an end the closer that time was coming. Like the previous year the master had grown old, weaker and more easily enraged. Nevertheless the journey women were working as hard as they could.

Elsa and Merida were in the barn, sharpening a few tools that had gotten dull, both not paying any attention to the coffin that had appeared a few nights ago, placed there by the master herself after it had been delivered by the Grim Reaper.

Rapunzel entered the workshop, a bright smile on her face as usual. The year since her arrival she had changed just like Elsa had, being more healthy and fit than ever before. “I've tended to the animals as requested. What now?”

“A still wonder how ya can be such a workaholic”, Merida stated with a shake of her head.

Elsa just wanted to respond when a scream pierced through the silence of the day. The three women looked at each other in surprise and then darted towards the source: the grinder room.

Having arrived there together with most of the other journey women they all stopped short. Up below the beams of the room Kida was hanging with a rope around her neck, a stool below her feet on the platform around the grinder kicked away. She was still alive, still struggling, but none of the other journey women dared to move. They all – except Rapunzel – knew that Kida had been chosen as the next victim of the master and they all wondered what would happen if she would die before that time. It wasn't a nice thought to have, it was their fellow journey woman, their companion, their sister that was dangling from the ceiling, but they also knew about the cycle of the mill. And Rapunzel looked too stunned to do anything.

However Kida was released from her fight with death when the master came up from behind and cut the rope that kept the senior journey woman hanging. She collapsed on the floor, rasping for air.

“You won't escape me that easily”, the master stated and strode past the body of the white haired woman. She leaned onto the wooden railing around the platform. “There's someone with a loved one among you.”

All journey women looked around them in surprise, unsure who it was. Elsa and Ariel both looked as well to keep their cover.

“The loved one will be on their way here soon.” But Elsa hadn't yet sent Ariel to call in Anna, how did the master know? Then it dawned her. The master didn't _need_ to know, because if there was someone with a loved on the only possible day to request the freedom _was_ the last day of the year. And that would be tomorrow!

“I'll make you a deal”, the master continued in a soothing voice. “Bring me the loved one and I'll gift the one who did with her freedom.”

Elsa wanted to gasp, but she held back. Would the others betray her? No, they couldn't. They didn't even know it was her that had a loved one, did they? And what about Ariel? She had been at this for a while already, her mask of muteness and incompetence keeping her alive, but would she take this chance the master presented her with?

“Take her away!”, the master said while pointing her arm towards Kida and walked down the platform and on towards her own building.

Later that day Elsa burst into the kitchen where Ariel was preparing dinner. Elsa had been worried by the thought that on of the other journey women would betray her and she came to the conclusion that she didn't want to risk her sister just like this.

“I can't do it, Ariel, not like this!”, Elsa exclaimed once she had closed the door.

Ariel turned around. “What do you mean?”

“I won't risk my sister's life over this!”

“But you are our best chance! Your sister is out there, she just needs to come in and bid for your freedom!”

Elsa shook her head, her arms clasped around her body, the floor around her covered in ice. “They will intercept her, hand her over to the master. I can't let them do that. Please Ariel, as my friend, I plead you, don't go out and fetch Anna, destroy the ring!” Elsa had never pleaded to anyone like this, but she needed Ariel to understand. She loved Anna too much to risk her for this. They both would live on, Elsa might be trapped in the mill until her death would come, but she wouldn't drag her sister into this as well.

Ariel just looked at Elsa for a while, looking into her eyes, looking her all over and finally she relented.

“Okay, I'll do as you wish.” She turned back towards the meal on the stove. “Would have been to good to be true...”, she mumbled.

Elsa knew that she betrayed her friend with her decision, but she didn't have a choice.

* * *

It was the morning of the last day of the year and the master calling for her didn't bode well for Elsa. Had Ariel betrayed her? Or had the master found out in some other way?

The door to the master's study already opened before Elsa had knocked. Holding her head high she walked in, ignoring the door closing all by itself. She sat down on the chair in front of the master desk once it had been offered to her.

“Your luck and your strength have left you, Elsa.” The master, old and gray, the face full of wrinkles looked at her with her two so much different eyes, her voice as calm as the surface of a lake when no wind was blowing. “Cause you've chosen the wrong way. But there's still time to turn around.”

Elsa glanced at the table in front of her. Unlike the last time there were no candles, no books and no scrolls. There was only a knife and a bowl with... mealworms?! She didn't know what the master had planned with the insects, but that knife surely looked tempting. But she wouldn't need it. She could use her curse to shoot an icicle through the master's weak body. She could end this, here and now.

“You have the potential to be a great wizard, Elsa. Don't throw that away.”

Elsa doubted that the master had Elsa's best interests in mind.

“Don't let yourself be influenced by Ariel.”

 _Wait, what?_ Elsa looked at the master in surprise. The master knew about Ariel?

“I know that she's behind this. Surprised?”, the master asked with a grin. “You know what Ariel is for me? Filthy scum. Someone who doesn't fight themselves, but send others to the front.”

No, that wasn't the case. Sure, it had been Ariel's idea, but Elsa had been behind this just as much. If only this whole plan wouldn't have put Anna in so much danger, even more than she would have been in anyway.

“First Eilowny, then Mulan... They were stupid enough to believe her. But what for?”

What for? The only thing that the master did know nothing about. Love.

“You're forgetting something”, Elsa spat. “Perhaps because it doesn't play a role in your life.”

Suddenly the master began to wheeze, her weakened body getting the better of her.

This was it, this was her chance. Elsa brought up her palm and conjured an icicle that flew towards the master. To Elsa's horror however the master dodged with a speed that betrayed the body the woman possessed. And before Elsa could process what was going on the master had grabbed her by her still outstretched hand and tugged her towards the table. Faster than Elsa could react the master had cut into her palm with the knife that had lain on the table, drawing blood and then she poured the mealworms into the wound. The master's weakness had been a trick!

Just now Elsa noticed that the mealworms weren't ordinary, instead they were drenched with dark magic. They crawled into the open wound and along her arm below the skin. It felt as if her arm was on fire, a feeling she didn't have often with the cold being her ever present companion.

“The Elsa I knew wanted to control her power, to keep her distance from her sister. What about that? I can still help you with that.”

The fire spread towards her head, she felt her vision distorting, blurring.

“I offer you your life, for this and for all years.”

The master's words sounded alluring. She could live on in the mill without fear of ever hurting her sister again. _No!_ It was a trick! The worms were messing with her mind! She had to resist, to keep up her willpower like she had trained with Ariel!

“I've got more to offer to you than that sister of yours.”

No, Anna was her sister and she was her everything. She would not let the master cloud her judgement. Through her blurry view she saw the master reaching out with her hand.

“Just accept. You don't want to die, do you?”

No, she didn't want to die. But she didn't want to risk her sister's life or anyone else's.

“If I don't die, who will instead?”, Elsa managed to ask.

“Make a proposal. Aurora? Agreed? Just accept!”

She didn't want to agree, this was wrong. But somehow her hand began to reach up. No, no, no. She had to resist this offer of the master, she had to resist for the sake of the others, she had to resist for Anna!

With all the willpower she had she managed to reach up with her other hand and to stop the first one from shaking the master's.

Elsa felt bile rise up her throat. The worms. Their time was up. That's why the master had been rushing so much in the last few moments. She felt the remnants of the worms gather in her mouth until it had been too much. She spew everything onto the desk in front of her, where it vanished into black smoke.

Her vision cleared. She was gasping for breath, trying to forget the taste of the cursed worms, but she had done it, she had withstood the master's offer.

“I might despise Aurora”, Elsa finally said, “but she's my fellow journey women and I don't want to bear part of the blame on her death.”

What neither Elsa nor the master hadn't known was that during the master's try to lure in Elsa Aurora was standing just outside the room, listening to everything that had been said. And she made her own decision once Elsa had withstood the master.

Elsa stood up and stepped a bit towards the door. “And I'll go now.”

“You will leave when I allow you to leave!”, the master shouted, slamming her palm onto the desk. Elsa was stunned. It wasn't often that the master raised her voice. Then again it only happened if someone defied her orders or rules and Elsa was just doing that.

The master got up and walked to the window behind her. “Go to the barn and take the spade. There's a grave to dig in Koselbruch”, she said, her voice as cold as the ice Elsa was able to conjure. “That will be your last task.”

Without a further word Elsa left the room. At least she had managed for Kida to live another year.

Once she had she hurried towards the hen house and dug up the cross she had hidden here during her first year. It was still where she had left it and once she had removed the dirt as good as possible from the wooden piece and its thread she fastened it around her neck. She gave it a quick kiss, enjoying it's reassuring presence. She then grabbed a shovel at the workshop and went to the clearing with the graves.  

* * *

At nightfall Elsa returned to the mill and to the sleeping chamber for the last time. The other journey women looked at her, knowing instinctively that Kida no longer was the chosen one. There was nothing more she needed to say to them. Just as she wanted to free herself from her clothes to prepare them for the new apprentice that would come after her, she heard a knocking at the door below.

 _No!_ Elsa whisked around to look at Ariel, who merely shook her head and pointed at herself with just as much surprise in her eyes as Elsa saw in the other's eyes.

Down below the master opened the door to reveal the face of a young woman, not unlike Elsa's, framed by two strawberry blonde braids. She was wearing a simple white, linen dress, decorated with a few green stripes.

“What can we do for a lovely young lady like you?”, the master asked with an as sweet voice as possible, sending a shiver down Elsa's neck.

“I'm here for one of your gals.”

Elsa hurried towards the staircase upon hearing her sister's voice. She had already known that it could have only been her sister, but a small part of her still had held the hope that it would have been someone else.

“One of my gals, hmm? And who would that be?”, the master asked.

“Elsa. It's Elsa”, Anna exclaimed and her smile had widened once she had noticed Elsa standing at the top of the staircase.

“Elsa, hmm?” The master turned around and looked at her with a knowing smile. Elsa gulped. “What is your name?”, the master then inquired.

 _Oh no!_ Only now Elsa remembered that she hadn't told Anna to not reveal her name. She wanted to shake her head but she found herself no longer able to move herself. Whether because of her own fear or because the master had put a spell on her Elsa didn't know.

To her infinite relief however Anna stayed quiet and looked towards the master in defiance.

“Okay then, girl-without-name, do you think you will be able to recognize your gal?”

“Of course”, Anna stated her look clearly showing that she had thought about some harder test. But Elsa knew that it wouldn't be as easy as Anna just thought it would be.

The master turned towards the journey women who had gathered around the top of the staircase. “Go to the black chamber.”

Without any further confirmation they followed their master's order and gathered downstairs in the black chamber. As soon as they were all in there and the door had closed behind them they all were engulfed by their black coats and felt themselves being transformed into ravens, confined onto the rods with the raven heads at the top of the columns that support the room. They could craw, they could move their heads, they could move along the bars, but they couldn't fly away.

Moments later the door to the chamber opened again, allowing the master and Anna access to the room. The master was guiding the much younger woman through the room towards the opposite end where they both turned around.

“Now”, the master said towards Anna's ear. “If you can show me your gal among them”, she gestured towards the ravens sitting on their perches, “you two will be free to go.”

Elsa saw Anna hesitating for a moment. But then she took a step forward. For her the ravens all looked the same, they didn't differ like they did for those adept in the dark magic. Noticing that she couldn't rely on her sense of sight Anna closed her eyes and began to walk past the first two columns trying to feel anything that would remind her of her sister.

There was nothing Elsa could do, but wait. She could not fly away and out of fear she didn't want to do anything to reveal herself, having the feeling that the master would either not allow it anyway or that she'd have to deal with the consequences. Her curse didn't respond to her in her raven form anyway, so that was no help either, despite for once Elsa had hoped for it to be.

Anna had reached the end of the columns on the other side of the room. It was quiet in the room, not even the crackling of the fire in the large chimney could be heard.

This was a mistake! They would both die today and the worst was that it had been Elsa's fault again. She'd be the reason her sister would lose her life.

Anna came around to Elsa's side of the room, passing the column she shared with the transformed Tiana and Merida.

Elsa's heart was beating harder than it had ever before. _No, no, no, come back! I'm here, Anna!_ , she pleaded to her sister in her mind.

Anna hesitated. She opened her eyes and turned around to look back at the column she had just passed, to look straight into the eyes of Elsa. She took a step closer, taking in the sight of the raven before her, studying every feather, every part of the raven's body.

Did Anna recognize Elsa? Would this really work?

Anna's hand reached up, pointing towards Elsa. “This. This is her.”

Elsa held her breath. Did she just feel a slight vibration from the gears in the grinder room?

“Are you sure?”, the master asked, her voice unsure, knowing fully well what this would mean.

“Yes”, Anna stated confidently. “This is Elsa.”

The vibration appeared again. The water wheel was turning and from the feeling it was beginning to turn faster than it ever did when powered by water. Just at that moment Elsa felt the grasp of the master around herself release. The other journey women recognized that as well and began to caw loudly. They lifted off from their rods and began to circle the master, picking at her during flybys. Then, one by one the women transformed back from their raven forms to humans, spewing feathers like usual. Elsa transformed as last, directly next to Anna.

“It's over, master”, Elsa said, ridding herself of the black coat.

The master looked at her just like the defeated, old woman she really was. Elsa stepped aside and the master wandered out of the room towards the grinding room where the gears were still turning faster and faster.

Once the master had left the fire in the chimney began to glow more fierce than before, reaching for the wooden surroundings.

“We should leave!”, Kida exclaimed, Merida and Cinderella appearing at her side to support the still weakened woman on their way outside.

“Come, come!”, Elsa ushered Anna forward.

Aurora however stayed back, looking at the black coat in her hand, contemplating her course of action. Then she tossed the coat to the ground and darted after the others.

They had loaded Kida onto a cart they towed away from the mill, the building beginning to be engulfed by flames. Elsa and Anna were walking hand in hand at the end of the small caravan, next to Ariel.

“I thought I had told you not to fetch my sister?”, Elsa asked Ariel. In a sense she was glad that it was over now, but it was foolish of Ariel to risk Anna's life just like that.

“Oh, it wasn't Ariel”, Anna quipped. “It was Aurora.”

“Aurora?”, Elsa asked in disbelief. That was the last person she had thought would help her. Not after probably having been behind the meeting with the master because of Elsa's cross. Absentmindedly she reached towards the talisman hanging around her neck.

“She had heard what you said in the master's study and had sworn us to secrecy”, Kida explained from her position on the cart.

“Oh. I think I need to apologize to and thank her then.” Elsa looked among their small group. “Where is she?” She turned around just in time to see Aurora running towards them, however once she had reached them and Elsa wanted to say something the mill behind them exploded in a ball of fire. They all looked at the burning building in shock, the building that had been their home for the past years.

“What now?”, Jasmine asked.

Ariel shrugged. “We'll be normal women again. We won't keep our strength and health, but we can still put the skills we acquired to good use.”

“Hey, didn't know that ya could talk!”, Merida stated looking at Ariel accusingly.

“It might have slipped my mind”, Ariel said and tried to look all innocently. Elsa was sure that no one, not even Merida would be able to withstand that look.

“But before we leave let's make sure that there'll be nothing here to return to”, Elsa then said and turned around.

“How do you plan to do that? We don't have any magic strength anymore you know?”, Aurora asked.

“Thankfully my own magic was never part of that”, Elsa said with a wink. She reached out with her hands and blizzard began to form around the remains of the mill as well as the master's building. It increased so much in intensity that no one could see anymore what was going on in there. Then Elsa dropped her hand and the blizzard began to vanish. Once the storm had disappeared the only remnants of the mill were the animals they had kept to sustain themselves. Elsa's storm had spared them.

“We should take them to Schwarzkollm”, Rapunzel said and walked towards the animals gathered on the former grounds of the black mill.

“I knew you could do it”, Anna said and leaned onto Elsa's arm.

“It wouldn't have worked if you hadn't picked me. Speaking of which how did you recognize me?”

Anna looked up and into the eyes of her sister. “Your fear for me was a pretty good giveaway.”

“Oh.” Everyone began to laugh.

The Secret Sisterhood of the Black Mill was no more and the women returned to normal lives. But I, Elsa will for always remember the events that had transpired in the Koselbruch and that in the end led to the reunion of my sister and me.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So… here we are. I hope you liked it and I’d really appreciate if you’d leave a review on this. :)  
> Can you take a guess who I envisioned the master to be?  
> A few closing remarks, now that I don’t need to keep spoilers anymore:  
> The title is based on the initially mentioned song cycle “Zaubererbruder”. Literally this means “wizard brother”, so “wizard sister” would have been the approbiate English title. I decided however to go with the German variant “Zaubererschwester”.  
> The locations Schwarzkollm, Koselbruch and Hoyerswerda all exist. Just check Google Maps, they are all rather close to eachother. ;)  
> The hat I gave the master - the tricorne - is an anachronism, it first appeared after the 30 Years War at the end of the 17th century…  
> The usage of the word “gals” to describe the sisters might be an anachronism as well. In German the young men working at the mill are described as “Burschen”, aka “fellers” or “guys”, so I wanted to use something similar for the girls (I don’t even know whether there were any groups of journey women… Up to now I suspect that they basically always mainly men, the masters as well :/ ). My translation software had also suggested “wenches” with its historical meaning of “farm girls”, but I decided that was too much of a bad idea considering its use nowadays. :P  
> The movie moved the location to the Mittelgebirge of Germany while the area around Schwarzkollm is in reality rather flat (it’s located the far South of the North German Plain). Since I had visited Schwarzkollm I decided that my story plays where it should ;)  
> The ending is definitely inspired from the movie however. Throughout it we have a third person narrator, however at the end he reveals to have been Krabat all along…


End file.
